Low income housing requirements

[PaintBy123s]

Just moved to Ann Arbor and one of my favorite things to do is to read and check out the developments in progress. I'm glad to see that there is a forum devoted to talk and discuss this area.

So I came across an editorial in the detroit news:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic.../603210301/1008

It certainly seems like a difficult situation for developers... what does everyone think about this current system?

[wolverine]

Interesting you post this, because there was a lecture about this today up at the architecture school. I agree that it should be determined by market demands. I have a feeling the intensive method Ann Arbor is using has to deal with the current population shifts. It is very expensive to live in Ann Arbor (at least for us Michiganders). I have a feeling the city government is seeing these trends and assuming that the poor are all now on the streets. There is still a fair amount of affordable housing available within the city limits. I do agree that developers should have to contribute some support to these projects, but certainly not as much as they do now. That's almost discouraging development in the first place.

There is a general consensous that Ann Arbor has become increasingly "yuppyfied" and that there is not alot of affordable space for small business owners or poorer residents. This is true to some extent. I would encourage the city re-evaluate the current conditions though before taking this big of a bite out of developers wallets.

[tomo]

It's ridiculous to make only developers of large downtown developments pay for affordable housing while letting everybody building detached homes further out off the hook. While I disagree that it should be left entirely up to the market (very few things should be), affordable housing should be more highly distributed on cheaper land along bus/transit lines where the subsidies will go a longer way and every mcmansion that's being built out in the suburbs should be contributing to. Should we force each mcmansion to also build a room for the poor? Maybe not but we shouldn't let them get away with putting all the burdens on the urban.